The present invention relates to a moving-image reproduction apparatus, a moving-image reproduction method, a program and a recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to a moving-image reproduction apparatus capable of changing over a moving image from one to another and relates to a moving-image reproduction method adopted by the moving-image reproduction apparatus, a program for implementing the moving-image reproduction method as well as a recording medium for storing the program.
An image-processing apparatus has been developed as a conventional apparatus for continuously reproducing a still image by rolling a plurality of still-image pages as described in a document such as patent document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 8-79197. In accordance with patent document 1, it is possible to select a display object included in an object as an object to be actually displayed in accordance with the position of the object on a screen and position the selected display object. For example, by operating a cursor to go to the immediately succeeding page or return to the immediately preceding page of a still image such as a newspaper article, a newspaper image including a plurality of objects can be inspected.
In recent years, on the other hand, the computer is capable of continuously reproducing an image by changing over a plurality of moving images. In this case, first of all, when a predetermined moving-image change instruction is received while a preceding first moving image is being reproduced as a picture at a predetermined display position, a decoder starts an operation to decode a succeeding second moving image and, as soon as the preparation for reproduction of the succeeding second moving image is completed, the second moving image is reproduced to replace the first moving image.
There is raised a problem, however, that in an operation to continuously reproduce a plurality of moving images, a processing load borne by a CPU increases excessively in comparison with the operation to continuously reproduce still images as described in patent document 1 when a moving image is changed over from one to another.
On the other hand, when a moving image reproduced by a personal computer is changed over, a blank time is generated on the screen, giving discomfort to the user. In addition, in one case to eliminate the discomfort, for example, 2 moving images, i.e., a preceding moving image and a succeeding moving image on the screen of the personal computer, are changed over while these images are moving. In another case to eliminate the discomfort, the frame of a moving image is shrunk or enlarged repeatedly to add dynamic elements between operations to change over the moving image. Either of the cases raises a problem that the processing load borne by the CPU increases to a very large magnitude.